Eighth seed Casper Ruud said that he would feel far less pressure in his French Open semi-final against Grand Slam winner Marin Cilic today after his quarter-final victory over Danish teenager Holger Rune on Wednesday.
Ruud became the first Norwegian to reach the last four of any Grand Slam when he beat Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 and end the sensational run for the 19-year-old, who was playing his first French Open.
Rune had eliminated fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who made the final last year, in the previous round and is tipped, along with fellow teen Carlos Alcaraz, as the future stars of the sport, but it was Ruud who was the favorite going into their match.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The 33-year-old Cilic, a US Open winner in 2014, has more experience than the 23-year-old Norwegian on the big stage, having also reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open in 2018.
However, Cilic’s run to the last four has been surprising, even for his next opponent following the Croatian’s victory earlier on Wednesday over Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) in a final super tiebreak.
“That’s going to be a tough match,” Ruud said. “He seems like he is playing some of this best tennis of his life at the moment here at Roland Garros.”
Photo: AFP
“He has reached the semi-final and has been playing so well on the way to the semi-final,” he said.
While the stakes were higher with a maiden last-four spot at a Grand Slam for him, the pressure would be lower than against up-and-coming Rune, Rudd said.
It will be “less than today. Today I played a younger player from Scandinavia and you feel you had the pressure to win,” said Ruud, who had beaten Rune on three previous occasions in straight sets.
Photo: Reuters
“In two days I am playing Cilic. He has won a Grand Slam and several finals, so he has more experience than me,” he said. “So I have everything to win and nothing to lose.”
In the other semi-final today, Rafael Nadal is to play Alexander Zverev.
In the women’s singles, Jessica Pegula reached the French Open quarter-finals before running into Iga Swiatek on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
Four months ago, at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, Pegula reached the Australian Open quarter-finals before running into eventual champion Ash Barty.
Two majors, two strong runs and two meetings with the No. 1 player at the time.
Swiatek, who replaced the retired Barty atop the WTA rankings, benefited from the chair umpire’s no-call on a double bounce that gave her a first-set service break during a key five-game run and moved into the semi-finals at Roland Garros by beating Pegula 6-3, 6-2 to extend her winning streak to 33 matches.
Swiatek’s run is the longest on tour since Serena Williams won 34 in a row in 2013.
“To be honest, she kind of plays like a guy,” Pegula said about Swiatek. “And, I mean that as, Ash was a similar way, where they don’t play like a typical girl where they hit kind of flat and the ball kind of goes through the court.”
“She plays a little more unorthodox in the fact that she has, like, a really heavy forehand, but at the same time she also likes to step in and take it really early, and I think clay gives her more time, and I think it makes her forehand even harder to deal with,” she said.
Swiatek was to play No. 20 Daria Kasatkina in one women’s semi-final, with the other between No. 18 Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American, against unseeded Martina Trevisan, a 28-year-old from Italy.
Those matches were to be completed after press time last night.
Of the last four women in the singles, only Swiatek has previously participated in the semi-finals of a major tournament, losing at that stage at the Australian Open in January and taking the title at the 2020 French Open when she was ranked outside the top 50.
“This year it’s a little bit different, because I’m not an underdog,” she said. “And everything has changed, honestly.”
Kasatkina beat No. 29 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in a match between two Russian players who will not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon later this month because of that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
They combined for 75 unforced errors, 50 by Kudermetova.
“It was a roller coaster,” said Kasatkina, who had not reached a major quarter-final in four years.
A day after her 21st birthday, Swiatek was not at her dominant best against the 11th-seeded Pegula.
As usual for most of this season, Swiatek was good enough to end up on the right side of the scoreline. She has not lost a match since February, winning her past five tournaments.
The persistent pressure applied to opponents is another similarity Pegula sees between Swiatek and Barty.
“You get those few chances and you kind of feel it weighing on you that if you don’t take advantage of it, you’re like: ‘Shoot, my chance was gone, and now I have to work so hard to either hold serve or get back in this game’ or whatever it was,” Pegula said. “Mentally, that’s also what they do so well and what I’ve been trying to do better.”
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